University of Utah claims 3rd-straight national title
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Lexi Hanus
Photo courtesy of University of Utah
Park City was bustling as the best college skiers, Alpine and Nordic, converged on the historic venue, where hometown favorite University of Utah claimed its third-straight NCAA national title in skiing. The Alpine portion of the program actually concluded on Friday, and the overall tally wasn’t made official until completion of the Nordic events on Saturday. On the Alpine side, two days of racing – GS and slalom – culminated the season.
The championship kicked off with GS on a beautiful, sunny, brisk day, which was welcome after the event was postponed due to excessive snowfall.
The men and women skied the same course and were able to eventually get down to a great surface. The women’s race had some soft snow on top in the first run, but they skied off before the men’s race began and had a solid surface on the second run.
First run had significant swing with a little more distance. The second run was more direct, according to racers.
The three schools with the top scores in the women’s GS were DU (69 points), UU (63 points), and CU with 62 points. The top eastern institution was UVM in fourth with 52 points.
The West swept the women’s podium. Magdalena Luczak from CU finished on top by a significant margin – 1.25 seconds. Next was DU’s Katie Hensien, just a few weeks out of the Olympics. Kathryn Parker, a University of Utah Ute, finished in third, 35 hundredths off of Hensien.
Hensien felt a significant amount of pressure coming into this race, even after racing in the Olympics.
“I definitely felt the pressure first run, definitely had nerves, more nerves than I had at the Olympics,” reported Hensien. “Not only do you have the pressure of yourself but the pressure of the team – supporting the team and competing for the team definitely brings a different level of nerves.”
Despite the pressure and nerves, Hensien was able to put down two solid runs. Her second run was better than her first, with the second-fastest time on course.
Nellie Talbot notably moved up significantly on the second run from seventh to fourth (third on the run), saying that you just had to bring speed onto the easier course second run.
The first eastern athlete was Ellie Curtis from Dartmouth College, who finished in eighth place.
Men’s GS
The top three scoring schools on the men’s side were UU (75 points), DU (63 points) and CU (59 points). UNH was the top eastern school in fifth with 47 points.
The West also swept the men’s podium, with Filip Forejtek, of CU, on top. He finished with a combined time of 1:57.41. Gustav Voello from UU finished in second place, 0.73 out. Riley Seger had the fastest first run but finished in 21st on the second, which impressively only pulled him down to third place.
Oliver (Ollie) Morgan, a freshman at Dartmouth, put together a seventh- and 17th-place result to finish in eighth.
Like Hensien, Morgan was feeling the pressure of being at NCAA Championships. “I’ve never been that nervous,” he said. He even lost a pole part way down the course because he was trying to make up for lost time up top, where he struggled a bit due to nerves.
With respect to starting the races a day late, Forejek said, “I think it helped all of us. We got one extra day of rest, we got our gym workout, get ready for this race. The snow today was perfect.”
Forejek also emphasized the importance of team results at NCAA Championships compared to regular season NCAA races. His job was to go “full send,” which led to his success.
Men’s slalom
The men and women raced slalom on Friday, just a day after the GS races. It was a beautiful bluebird day with snow conditions on the softer side.
Two UVM men secured spots on the slalom podium, with Mathias Tefre in first and Joachim Jagge Lindstol in third. With these two results and their teammate Mackenzie Wood in 16th, they were the highest-scoring men’s team of the day with 89 points.
Gustav Voello, from Utah, occupied the second spot on the podium. He finished behind Tefre by 0.28 seconds and just barely outpaced Lindstol by four hundies.
The soft snow can be intimidating to skiers from the East as it differs a lot from the ice they are accustomed to.
“We knew but you never know in this weather condition – it’s so different from the East,” said Tefre, “but we pulled it together, great team effort.”
Tefre said that he thought the first-run set was easier and described the second run course as “turny and gnarly.”
While some of the men had to hike, everyone finished the second run.
Women’s slalom
Denver’s Katie Hensien came out on top in the women’s slalom with a combined time of 1:45.40. Evelina Fredricsson, a Westminster Griffin, was 0.23 seconds behind Hensien, and Kristiane Bekkestad was 0.48 off the pace in third.
A significant groove formed, particularly for the later women, on both runs. One particular spot in the second run caused a lot of trouble for several women. However, the hiking spirit was in the air with only one athlete choosing not to hike.
DU was the top women’s team in the slalom with 69 points. Second was Utah with 63 points, and third was Colorado, who missed second place by just one point with 62 points. The UVM women scored 52 points for fourth place, making them the top team from the East.
Utah was the top-ranked school in the West coming into 2022 NCAA Championships, and they are leaving as the top alpine team by a single point. DU was right behind them in second place, just barely missing the alpine title.
UVM’s slalom results pulled them up from fourth after the GS to third overall with 239 points. Westminster and CU were fourth and fifth, making UVM the only team from the East to crack the top five in the alpine rankings.
While Dartmouth was absent from the top team rankings this year, all three women who competed earned the All-American title. Hannah Utter, a second year senior, said that “we had six girls this season and I think if we could have started six girls we would have had six All-Americans.”
At Soldier Hollow on Saturday, The University of Utah wrapped up the overall title, which combines Nordic and Alpine results.
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